24
The word "korekta" is derived from the verb "korekti", which means "to correct". Therefore its only regular meaning is "characterized by or related to the act of correcting". For example, one can say "korekta laboro" in the sense of "correction work", i.e. the work that consists of correcting something. PIV has another good example: "la korektaj reguloj de ...
21
To me this is a clear anglicism. These kinds of anglicisms sometimes gain some popularity quite fast, because their English equivalents are vastly understood also by non english natives. The people who used it first might have even meant it as a joke but then people came to use it as if it was normal language use.
German natives some years ago made such a ...
19
Unfortunately one has to memorize this. But it is not as hard as it seems. You already have to memorize the precise meaning of a verb and transitivity or intransitivity is part of its meaning. The trouble is when a verb in another language (such as English) is both transitive and intransitive and is given as a translation in the dictionary. "boli" is an ...
19
You should use ci about as often as you would use thou in English. Or less.
The purpose of ci was to provide an alternative, singular form of vi for use in translations (or pseudo-translations), when a sudden change in the choice of pronoun has to be rendered.
For example, in Kastelo de Prelongo, the language spoken by the characters is French, which ...
18
I can explain the difference with a simple sentence: "Mi flaras la floron. La floro odoras bone."
flari: to sense a smell released by something with one's nose (the subject is a person)
odori: to release a certain smell, perceptible with one's nose (the subject is an object that releases the smell)
17
olda is a neologism which can mean either maljuna or malnova like the English word "old".
It appears in the dictionary Simplaj Samsignifaj Vortoj which is a list of recommendations about good usage of particular words:
old·a → maljun·a, mal·nov·a
The → means that they recommend against using the word and the alternative should be used instead. I would ...
17
In the Unua Libro (the first book about Esperanto from 1887), ci doesn't appear at all. Later Zamenhof introduced it in order to be able to render in translated works the distinction that most European languages make between a polite and a familiar second-person pronoun (tu-vous in French, Du-Sie in German, ты-вы in Russian, tú-usted in Spanish). However he ...
16
I like to use the word umi. It has a nice slang feel to it whilst still being formed from an Esperanto root. PIV has the following definition:
umi (fm) Fari ion ne precizigitan: kion vi umas?; ni drinkas, fumas, inkas k umas, laŭ nia kaprico; la kantisto […] umas en la roksubgrunda medio en Britio; unu afiŝo en la kongresejo tekstis: «umu bone»; ŝi […] ...
16
There is a danger in importing sensitivities from our national cultures because in cases like this, sensitivity varies so much. I think nigrulo is fine - and if it's not fine, I would hope that people who come to Esperanto would cut me a little slack for saying it.
It seems to me a more important question is whether it's important in any given situation to ...
15
From here (but I’ve also heard it explained from people somewhere, maybe Evildea, if I’m not mistaken):
Ĝi estas por mi volapukaĵo.
Which comes from the other constructed language Volapuk which is regarded as “too hard” and therefore this meaning in Esperanto.
15
From Vortaro:
ĵus
Cirkonstanca morfemo, signifanta "momenton antaŭ nun" aŭ "antaŭ tiam.
A circumstantial morpheme, meaning "a moment before now" or "before that time".
Examples:
The sixth hour just struck.
ĵus batis la sesa horo
I just talked about that. ĝuste pri tio mi ja ĵus parolis
I just spoke with the boss. mi ĵus parolis kun la mastrino
...
14
-ita means that something has had something done to it, while -ata means something is having something done to it.
For example, if I call someone mia amata filo, that means that he is my son whom I love, I love him now. If I call him mia amita filo, that means he is my son whom I loved, but I don't necessarily still love him now - significantly different ...
14
"gajni" comes from the English "to gain", and has more or less the same meaning as "to gain", i.e. it generally expresses the idea of receiving something. You can use it to translate "to win", especially in situations when you could replace "to win" by "to gain" in English. For example, you can say "gajni premion" for "to win a prize", as you can also say "...
14
They are definitely not the same, PIV defines purpura like this:
Havanta la koloron de la purpuro
PIV defines purpuro like this:
*purpur/o:
1 Violruĝa kolorilo, kiun la antikvuloj eltiris el konkoj de mureksoj k de parenca sp.: la Tira purpuro estis la plej ŝatata.
2 Ŝtofo, tinkturita per tiu kolorilo, k rigardata de la antikvuloj kiel apartaĵo de reĝoj, ...
14
Ĵus applies to time. For your example, it would be "Li ĵus alvenis." However, ĵus does not apply to "merely." For the other example, you should say, "Mi simple deziras iom da pico."
14
The notes in the Duolingo lesson you refer to
https://www.duolingo.com/skill/eo/Da_De
are actually very useful, they start off
Although both da and de can be translated into English as of, they have different meanings:
Use da when you're talking about quantity.
Use de when talking about possession
with
taso da teo - a cup of tea (...
14
Ni diskutis tiun demandon dum NASK ĉi-jare. Mi konvinkiĝis pro la klarigo de Bertilo Wennergren ke la ĝusta vorto plej ofte estas "eblo", dum multege da esperantistoj, pro nacilingva influo, tro uzas "ebleco".
"Eblo" kovras la signifojn kaj de "ebleco" kaj de "eblaĵo".
eblaĵo - io kio povos okazi.
ebleco - la eco de esti ebla.
Sekve:
Estas tri ebloj (aŭ ...
13
First note that only about 30 roots in Esperanto have an explicitly male meaning. These are mainly the familial roots like "patro", "filo" and "edzo", nobility roots like "reĝo" and "princo" and a handful of others, like "viro", "knabo" and "monaĥo". Most other roots for naming people, e.g. profession roots like "piloto", "kelnero" and "studento", ...
13
"Ĝi estas por mi volapukaĵo."
Is a great way of expressing this.
"It's all Greek to me." means that something is not understandable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_to_me
Historically, Esperanto and Volapük have an intertwined history, Volapük was the first international language with a somewhat big following.
Volapük has logical grammar but the words ...
13
Your two sentences mean the same thing. However, krom means "besides", and as a result there are situations in which it could mean both "except" and "as well as".
Mi havas, krom la ŝlosilo, ĉion bezonatan.
I have, besides the key, everything I need.
Do you have the key or not? To distinguish the two, we can say:
NO: Mi havas, ...
13
This is explained well in PMEG:
La verba finaĵo US normale montras, ke temas pri nereala, imagata ago. Sed la verbaj formoj povus, devus kaj volus havas tamen specialan signifon. Plej ofte ili esprimas realan devon, povon aŭ volon rilate al ago, kiun oni tamen ne faris, faras aŭ faros:
Mi devus labori. = Ja ekzistas por mi devo labori, sed mi ...
13
kio = what
Examples:
Kio estas tio? → What is that? (Is it a dog? Is it a cat?)
Kion vi deziras? → What do you want? (A pen? An ice-cream?)
kiu = which [one of a group, type, etc.] or who
Examples:
Kiu estas via aŭto? → Which is your car? (Which one of all these cars is yours? That one over there? Or this one here?)
Kiun vi deziras? → Which do you want? (...
13
Use tio when you don't know the nature of what you are pointing or if you don't want to mention its nature. (By "nature", I mean every kind of concept, such as cars, dogs, ideas ...)
You can read "tio" as "that thing/situation".
Kio estas tio? = What is that? / What thing is that thing?
Use tiu when you know the nature of what you are pointing.
Kio estas ...
13
According to PMEG:
La tabelvortoj kiel kaj tiel montras ne nur manieron, sed ankaŭ gradon. Oni uzu ilin en la samaj lokoj, kie oni povus uzi tre:
Vi estas tiel bela, tiel bona kaj tiel honesta, ke mi devas fari al vi donacon. FE.15 Oni povas diri: tre bela, tre bona kaj tre honesta.
Mi estas tiel forta, kiel vi. FE.10 Eblas diri: tre forta.
...
12
An article was recently published (in Interlinguistica Tartuensis IX, 2009) concerning Esperanto insults, which included a list of a few dozen recorded from the late 1980s. A reviewer commented:
Interesa detalo estas, ke la vorto "volapukisto" ankaǔ troviĝas en la listo, dum la vorto ‚idisto’ mankas (praktike ambaǔ esprimoj estas tamen treege ...
12
They are definitely not interchangable.
Trying to literally translate them to English you would end up in
kio = what
kiu = which
A rule that I find quite useful is
If it stands with a nounish word, it's "kiu", if it stands independently it's "kio".
Example:
Kio estas en la skatolo kaj kio estas sur la tablo?
En la skatolo estas ...
12
savi — to rescue from danger or preserve from the threat of loss; to provide salvation to
savi ion al iu — to rescue something for someone
ŝpari, rezervi — to conserve, to save up (money, time, etc)
ŝpari al iu — to save someone (effort, etc)
konservi — to have (or place) in safekeeping, to hang on to
konservi dosieron — to save a file
evitigi ion al ...
12
La vorto nura esprimas nesufiĉecon; la vorto sola esprimas foreston de kunuloj.
Li ne estas viro. Eĉ kun nia helpo, la tasko estos malfacila por nura knabo.
Li staras ekster la lernejo sen aliaj infanoj. Li estas sola knabo.
Rimarku la diferencon inter sola kaj sole:
Mi spektas sola. (Mi spektas sen kunspektantoj.)
Mi spektas sole. (Mi spektas sed faras ...
12
According to PMEG:
Oni uzas ĉiu, se oni konsideras la individuojn aparte.
Oni uzas ĉiuj, se oni pensas pri la tuta grupo kune.
I.e. ĉiu corresponds (for the most part) to "each" and ĉiuj to "all". Examples:
Al ĉiu el la infanoj mi donis po tri pomoj -> I gave each of my children three apples (each individual ended up with three of their own)
El ĉiuj miaj ...
12
The common word nowadays is nigrulo. The word negro used to be the common word until a few decades ago, but nowadays many Esperantists consider it to have a slight negative connotation (comparable to the English negro, not to the English word nigger).
The word nigrulo literally means 'black person', and it is just as neutral and non-derogative a term as ...
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